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JournalISSN: 1937-0229

Theory in Action 

Theory in Action
About: Theory in Action is an academic journal published by Theory in Action. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Politics & Transformative learning. It has an ISSN identifier of 1937-0229. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 238 publications have been published receiving 1084 citations.


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184 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the 2012 Miss Universe Canada competition, Talackova was disqualified from the competition as the incongruence between her sex assigned at birth and her current gender identity and presentation were grounds for dismissal as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: When Jenna Talackova entered the 2012 Miss Universe Canada competition, she did not disclose her history of being bom and assigned male at birth (nor should she have to). When the competition's organizers, including business mogul Donald Trump, became aware that Talackova was a transsexual woman, she was disqualified from the competition as the incongruence between Talackova's sex assigned at birth and her current gender identity and presentation were grounds for dismissal. Talackova was not the "normal" young woman she appeared to be. However, a month later she was told that if she could prove she meets the "legal gender recognition requirements of Canada and other international competitions," then she would be allowed to compete.1 Following her initial ousting, Talackova gained media attention as she fought for the same opportunity to compete as other women. Her story included the narrative of cross-gender identification as a child: she knew she was female by age four, she began hormone therapy at puberty, and she had undergone full sexual-reassignment surgery, which reconstructed her penis into a vagina.2 Jumping through all the right hoops to qualify for sexual reassignment surgery (SRS), Talackova upholds society's standards of both beauty and femininity. Effectively, Talackova was presented as a normal heterosexual woman whose body (read: genitals) now matched her gender identity. By wholly crossing from one side of the binary to the other, the sex-equals-gender model is upheld. Talackova "proved" she was a woman by conforming to traditional notions of gender. Consequently, Talackova was "rewarded" for subscribing to gender normative standards and was reinstated in the competition. If Talackova had not been fortunate enough to undergo sexual reassignment surgery, it is likely that she would not have been allowed to compete as she would not have met the legal and competition requirements of being female. The incongruence between her gender and sex would have challenged the sex-equals-gender binary and would have been seen as a threat to normative gender standards.This paper investigates some of the medical and legal procedures and policies of sex reassignment within Canada and the United States. Talackova's narrative illuminates several key aspects of medical transition and transnormativity that are discussed in this paper. These include early childhood cross-gender identification, medical treatment (through hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgeiy), sexuality, and legal change of sex designation on identification documents. Trans bodies and identities are constructed and regulated through medicalization and trans persons must conform to medical models of transsexuality to access treatment and undergo sex reassignment surgery.3 I argue that the normalization of trans persons upholds the bigender system that constructs trans bodies as either normal or deviant (read: sick). I will deconstruct the ways in which the transnormative narrative of transition simultaneously legitimizes transsexuality to those who can conform to the dominant narrative while delegitimizing gender variance and nonconforming trans persons.(TRANS)NORMATIVITYTo be normative is to ascribe to a social set of ideals that are unquestioned and presumed to be essential and unchangeable. We constitute ourselves through these notions of normality, reinforcing or resisting what it means to be normal. Michael Warner, known for his critique of same-sex marriage, attributes nonnativity to the invention and spread of statistics in the nineteenth century.4 While to be "normal" is to fall within a statistical range known as the mean or average, through medicalization these nonnalcies become biological "truths" of what a person should be. Nonnativity depends on a hierarchy of privilege and shame where those who fall within the category of "nonnal" are privileged, and those who fail at normativity are often disadvantaged and shamed by society. …

87 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City by Alice Goffman as mentioned in this paper provides readers with an eye-opening and evocative examination of how urban young men become hopelessly entangled in the criminal justice juggernaut.
Abstract: Book Review: Alice Goffman, On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City. New York: Picador, 2014. ISBN: 978-1250065667 (Paperback). 279 Pages. $16.00.[Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2016 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]In her book, On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, sociologist Alice Goffman provides readers with an eye-opening and evocative examination of how urban young men become hopelessly entangled in the criminal justice juggernaut. To conduct her ethnographic study, the author spent seven years living in an impoverished neighborhood to which she refers throughout the book as 6th Street, in Philadelphia. According to Goffman, 93% of the residents in this neighborhood are African American, and virtually all of the families in the community receive some type of governmental assistance. Throughout her book, Goffman documents the various methods by which law enforcement personnel seek to control the urban poor. The author candidly discusses how young men living within these inner city areas are often subjected to police harassment, and she claims to have witnessed numerous acts of police brutality. As she writes in the opening of her book, "I watched the police punch, choke, kick, stomp on, or beat young men with their nightsticks" (4).One aspect of Goffman's book that may be of particular interest to many scholars is the differentiation she makes between clean and dirty residents, namely young men, who live in and around 6th Street. The author contends that if an individual is clean, he does not have any impeding legal entanglements and therefore has the ability to successfully navigate his way through the neighborhood with little or no interference from authorities. Goffman contends that, all-too-often, however, most residents of 6th Street and the adjoining neighborhood blocks are dirty, a term which indicates that officials will likely seize this individual if they come into contact with him. In addition to having runins with law enforcement authorities, Goffman also asserts that young men who are dirty are often taken advantage of other people living within impoverished communities. For example, she provides one example in the book involving two residents inviting a man who was on the run to their home for the sole purpose of robbing him at gunpoint. Goffman remarks that this individual was an easy mark, namely because he had a warrant out for his arrest which virtually guaranteed he would not contact the police after he had been victimized.In On the Run, Goffman also informs her readers that residents who are wanted by the authorities (or those considered to be dirty), may avoid seeking medical attention. She writes that on a slow night, police officers stake out hospitals, which are hotspots where they can often find young men who are wanted by the criminal justice system. Goffman even claims in her book that police routinely investigate the names of individuals who visit the hospital as well as those who are admitted. For instance, she writes, "It is standard practice in the hospitals serving the Black community for police to run the names of visitors or patients while they are waiting around and to take into custody those with warrants or those whose injuries or presence there constitutes grounds for a new arrest or a violation of probation or parole" (34). Goffman also provides readers with real-life examples she witnessed, involving young fathers unwilling to be present at the birth of their child out of a genuine sense of fear that they might be arrested or detained should they go to the hospital. I found this aspect of the book to be particularly unsettling, especially in light of the fact that by federal law, medical facilities are required to grant patients a certain amount of confidentiality.In her book, Goffman also asserts that one of her subjects, "Chuck," a divorced father, was reluctant to visit his child on Sundays at a courtsupervised day-care site. …

72 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Forum Theater methodology as discussed by the authors provides a dialogic structure for deconstructing these deep-seated, bitterly divisive issues with sensitivity and respect, and also uses short uncomplicated scenes to show how environmental injustices adversely affect both physical and mental health.
Abstract: Our article, Environmental Justice and Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed: a Unique Community Tool for Outreach, Communication, Education and Advocacy, describes this transformative process, explores the theoretical and scientific influences behind the method and unpacks the collaborative dynamic modulating the efforts of community activists, nonprofit environmental professionals and academics to achieve and refine their working relationship. The text is accompanied by photos from actual sessions that illustrate how the methodology embodies concepts from environmental and social sciences to promote scientific literacy, and also uses short uncomplicated scenes to show how environmental injustices adversely affect both physical and mental health, and the larger economy of impacted communities. The fact that 85% of these towns and neighborhoods are communities of color underscores the fact that race and class are keys to the struggle for environmental justice. The Forum Theater methodology also provides a dialogic structure for deconstructing these deep-seated, bitterly divisive issues with sensitivity and respect. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2008 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]

21 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The work in this article highlights two state organizations working on ecological agriculture projects; one working directly with the farmers in the study where the data was collected and the other working more broadly across Bolivia.
Abstract: INTRODUCTIONIn Bolivia, farmers, NGOs and State actors3 share common concerns for ameliorating the country's remarkable biodiversity. Critical discourse and efforts contend with damage done by modem agriculture practices and the 'Green Revolution,' which transformed farming systems to necessitate the use of agro-chemicals and mono-cropping practices, and prioritized a limited variety of 'cash' crops over others to meet market demands. The resulting loss of agrobiodiversity is an ongoing concern and efforts to reverse these trends draw connections with the importance of agrobiodiversity conservation as a way to contend with climate change and as a way to fortify the right to Food Sovereignty, the underpinning logic of which involves the right to produce, distribute and consume nutritious, culturally appropriate food in a way that is ecologically sustainable.Evo Morales, heading the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party, came to power on an anti-neoliberal and anti-colonial platform that vowed to make several changes that would reduce dependence on foreign interests and benefit (indigenous) Bolivians. Among the plans were the well-known renationalizing of the gas and oil industries, as well as land reforms and increased attention to equal rights for indigenous populations, and along gender lines, with an emphasis on Andean cultural concepts. In 2009 Bolivia adopted a new constitution, emphasizing and clarifying the rights of indigenous peoples, based in the liberal tradition of human rights and aspects of what is sometimes referred to as the Andean cosmovision, such as the relationship and roles between humans and the earth. Following Venezuela and Ecuador's lead, Bolivia adopted the notion of Food Sovereignty into the new constitution.The data for this article arise from interviews with agricultural development workers during my ethnographic research in two Quechua farming communities in the Bolivian Andes in 2010 and a return visit in early 2011. In both communities farm households have been participating in ecological agriculture practices with a local NGO and have more recently joined a State research pilot project into organic agriculture with a national organic certification scheme. Despite the shared concerns for increasing agrobiodiversity, food sovereignty and organic farming, between the farmers, the NGO and the State, tensions were evident in the power imbalances embedded in these relationships.The non-govemmental organization, which I have called ODEP (which in English stands for, "Ecological Development Organization of Potosi") has more than a decade of experience working with farming communities and associations in several districts in Norte de Potosi. Among its major funding partnerships is a Canadian NGO concerned with food and livelihood security in marginal farming communities in several countries of the global South. Together, they worked on themes of organic production and adaptation to climate change, composting, agrobiodiversity and soil conservation, and micro-irrigation, among others. ODEP's work is practical, generally working in the fields or hands-on with projects, while also having theoretical components in monthly workshops, with demonstrations and planning sessions for future work or events such as ODEP's agrobiodiversity fairs.This article highlights two State organizations working on ecological agriculture projects; one working directly with the farmers in the study where the data was collected and the other working more broadly across Bolivia. Though the regions vary in which these governmental organizations are active, both do similar work to ODEP; providing training in ecological agriculture practices as well as carrying out research in both ecological and conventional agriculture.What emerged in the interviews with government-employed agronomists is that the State's need to maintain the stability and profitability of the current agribusiness for exportation leads to emphasizing independence and ownership over sustainability. …

20 citations

Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Journal in previous years
YearPapers
202311
202234
20212
20208
20199
201811